sourced story
13 December 1937 - February 1938Reputable source · 2 sourcesWell documented

Japanese troops kill and rape for six weeks after taking China's capital

On the timeline · around 13 December 1937 - February 1938 · The Gathering StormThe Gathering StormJapanese troops kill and rape for six weeks after taking China's capital1938

What happened

On 13 December 1937, troops of Japan's Central China Front Army under General Iwane Matsui entered Nanjing, then the capital of China. Over roughly six weeks, soldiers killed civilians and disarmed prisoners of war on a mass scale, and burned or looted large sections of the city. Entire families were killed, and the elderly and infants were not spared. Between 20,000 and 80,000 women were raped, many mutilated or killed afterward. Foreign missionaries and businessmen had set up a neutral International Safety Zone in November 1937 that sheltered some civilians, but Japan dismantled it in January 1938, and killings continued into the first week of February.

Why it matters

The massacre became central evidence at postwar war crimes tribunals: General Matsui and his subordinate commander Hisao Tani were tried and executed for atrocities tied to Nanjing. The event still shapes relations between China and Japan today, and the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall holds a place on UNESCO's Memory of the World Register, one of the few WWII-era atrocities with that specific international documentary designation.

How we know

The massacre is documented through the diaries and reports of Western missionaries and businessmen who ran the International Safety Zone, including John Rabe and Minnie Vautrin, through Japanese military records introduced at the postwar International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and through the war crimes trial testimony that convicted Matsui and Tani. No official death toll exists because no single wartime census survives, which is why historians cite a range instead of one number.

Sources

See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.

Part of a timelineWorld War II59 events · From a staged skirmish at a bridge outside Beijing to a charter signed in San Francisco, the deadliest conflict in history, every event sourced.View all →